Subject Guides: Chemistry: Databases

Recommended Databases for Chemistry

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
The most important database for chemistry, Covers articles, patents, book chapters, conference proceedings, and dissertations that have been indexed by Chemical Abstracts Service from 1907 to the present. Search by keyword, structure, reaction, chemical name or CAS Registry Number. First time users must create a user name and password.
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Cheminformatics database that includes chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology data. Indexes information with multiple taxonomies and includes a broad range of data types from patents, journals, and books: organic, inorganic and organometallic substances, including data on natural products with their species derivation, chemical reactions, experimental facts, including substance property, spectral and reaction data, documents from chemistry-related periodicals, and patents from around 105 patent offices.

You might need to log into the VPN - Virtual Private Network - before logging into SciFinder. More information on this process is here.

Structure Databases

Inorganic Crystal Structure Database This link opens in a new window
A numeric database containing records of >232,000 inorganic crystal structures. It is installed on one of the computers at the 2nd floor Reference Desk in the main library (the name of the shortcut to ICSD is "Find It").
Cambridge Structural Database System This link opens in a new window
Contains published crystallographic data on more than 750,000 organic, organometallic, and metal complex compounds. Search by structure, substructure, chemical name, cell parameters, and molecular formula.
Cambridge Structural Database System-VMware access (Restricted) This link opens in a new window
Same as above. Access via VMware is available to students, faculty, and staff in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the College of Engineering.
VMware for CSDS can be accessed from a Windows 7 computer: Start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Remote desktop connection -> Type in “csds.lib.auburn.edu” -> Connect -> Enter auburn user name and password.

Protein Data Bank
Open digital database containing the 3D shapes of ~185,000 proteins, nucleic acids, and complex assemblies.

Additional science databases

Engineering Village This link opens in a new window
The main database for engineering, Indexes engineering and technology journals, reports, monographs and conference proceedings from 1970 to the present. Can be a useful place to look for applied chemistry articles and conference proceedings that SciFinder may miss.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
>22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Covers the fields of biomedicine and health, as well as portions of the life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Interdisciplinary database that covers the major journals in all sciences, including chemistry, medicine, and engineering.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Provides access to much of the world's scholarly literature from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities. Includes peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports, and scholarly articles available on the Web. It lacks the indexing that most databases listed above offer, but provides broad coverage and is useful for checking references, finding links to full-text, and cited reference searching.